<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<!-- This file documents the BFD library.

Copyright (C) 1991-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being "GNU General Public License" and "Funding
Free Software", the Front-Cover texts being (a) (see below), and with
the Back-Cover Texts being (b) (see below).  A copy of the license is
included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

(a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:

A GNU Manual

(b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:

You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
     software.  Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
     funds for GNU development. -->
<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 5.2, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
<head>
<title>Untitled Document: Formats</title>

<meta name="description" content="Untitled Document: Formats">
<meta name="keywords" content="Untitled Document: Formats">
<meta name="resource-type" content="document">
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
<meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top">
<link href="BFD-Index.html#BFD-Index" rel="index" title="BFD Index">
<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
<link href="BFD-front-end.html#BFD-front-end" rel="up" title="BFD front end">
<link href="Relocations.html#Relocations" rel="next" title="Relocations">
<link href="Archives.html#Archives" rel="prev" title="Archives">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none}
blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller}
div.display {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.example {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.indentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.smallindentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em; font-size: smaller}
div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
kbd {font-style:oblique}
pre.display {font-family: inherit}
pre.format {font-family: inherit}
pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif}
pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif}
pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller}
pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller}
span.nocodebreak {white-space:nowrap}
span.nolinebreak {white-space:nowrap}
span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal}
span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal}
ul.no-bullet {list-style: none}
-->
</style>


</head>

<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000">
<a name="Formats"></a>
<div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Relocations.html#Relocations" accesskey="n" rel="next">Relocations</a>, Previous: <a href="Archives.html#Archives" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Archives</a>, Up: <a href="BFD-front-end.html#BFD-front-end" accesskey="u" rel="up">BFD front end</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="BFD-Index.html#BFD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<hr>
<a name="File-formats"></a>
<h3 class="section">2.9 File formats</h3>
<p>A format is a BFD concept of high level file contents type. The
formats supported by BFD are:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <code>bfd_object</code>
</li></ul>
<p>The BFD may contain data, symbols, relocations and debug info.
</p>
<ul>
<li> <code>bfd_archive</code>
</li></ul>
<p>The BFD contains other BFDs and an optional index.
</p>
<ul>
<li> <code>bfd_core</code>
</li></ul>
<p>The BFD contains the result of an executable core dump.
</p>
<a name="File-format-functions"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">2.9.1 File format functions</h4>


<a name="index-bfd_005fcheck_005fformat"></a>
<a name="bfd_005fcheck_005fformat"></a>
<h4 class="subsubsection">2.9.1.1 <code>bfd_check_format</code></h4>
<p><strong>Synopsis</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example">bfd_boolean bfd_check_format (bfd *abfd, bfd_format format);
</pre></div>
<p><strong>Description</strong><br>
Verify if the file attached to the BFD <var>abfd</var> is compatible
with the format <var>format</var> (i.e., one of <code>bfd_object</code>,
<code>bfd_archive</code> or <code>bfd_core</code>).
</p>
<p>If the BFD has been set to a specific target before the
call, only the named target and format combination is
checked. If the target has not been set, or has been set to
<code>default</code>, then all the known target backends is
interrogated to determine a match.  If the default target
matches, it is used.  If not, exactly one target must recognize
the file, or an error results.
</p>
<p>The function returns <code>TRUE</code> on success, otherwise <code>FALSE</code>
with one of the following error codes:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <code>bfd_error_invalid_operation</code> -
if <code>format</code> is not one of <code>bfd_object</code>, <code>bfd_archive</code> or
<code>bfd_core</code>.

</li><li> <code>bfd_error_system_call</code> -
if an error occured during a read - even some file mismatches
can cause bfd_error_system_calls.

</li><li> <code>file_not_recognised</code> -
none of the backends recognised the file format.

</li><li> <code>bfd_error_file_ambiguously_recognized</code> -
more than one backend recognised the file format.
</li></ul>

<a name="index-bfd_005fcheck_005fformat_005fmatches"></a>
<a name="bfd_005fcheck_005fformat_005fmatches"></a>
<h4 class="subsubsection">2.9.1.2 <code>bfd_check_format_matches</code></h4>
<p><strong>Synopsis</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example">bfd_boolean bfd_check_format_matches
   (bfd *abfd, bfd_format format, char ***matching);
</pre></div>
<p><strong>Description</strong><br>
Like <code>bfd_check_format</code>, except when it returns FALSE with
<code>bfd_errno</code> set to <code>bfd_error_file_ambiguously_recognized</code>.  In that
case, if <var>matching</var> is not NULL, it will be filled in with
a NULL-terminated list of the names of the formats that matched,
allocated with <code>malloc</code>.
Then the user may choose a format and try again.
</p>
<p>When done with the list that <var>matching</var> points to, the caller
should free it.
</p>
<a name="index-bfd_005fset_005fformat"></a>
<a name="bfd_005fset_005fformat"></a>
<h4 class="subsubsection">2.9.1.3 <code>bfd_set_format</code></h4>
<p><strong>Synopsis</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example">bfd_boolean bfd_set_format (bfd *abfd, bfd_format format);
</pre></div>
<p><strong>Description</strong><br>
This function sets the file format of the BFD <var>abfd</var> to the
format <var>format</var>. If the target set in the BFD does not
support the format requested, the format is invalid, or the BFD
is not open for writing, then an error occurs.
</p>
<a name="index-bfd_005fformat_005fstring"></a>
<a name="bfd_005fformat_005fstring"></a>
<h4 class="subsubsection">2.9.1.4 <code>bfd_format_string</code></h4>
<p><strong>Synopsis</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example">const char *bfd_format_string (bfd_format format);
</pre></div>
<p><strong>Description</strong><br>
Return a pointer to a const string
<code>invalid</code>, <code>object</code>, <code>archive</code>, <code>core</code>, or <code>unknown</code>,
depending upon the value of <var>format</var>.
</p>

<hr>
<div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Relocations.html#Relocations" accesskey="n" rel="next">Relocations</a>, Previous: <a href="Archives.html#Archives" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Archives</a>, Up: <a href="BFD-front-end.html#BFD-front-end" accesskey="u" rel="up">BFD front end</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="BFD-Index.html#BFD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>



</body>
</html>
